![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/BIW-111721-6.jpeg.jpg\")
Rep. Rob Wittman, the top Republican on the subcommittee, told Stefany during the hearing he doesn\u2019t think the flexibility is worth the cost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFewer ships, or being able to take out ships, is not the direction we should be going,\u201d he said. In his opening remarks, which he submitted in writing after the hearing, Wittman, of Virginia, said \u201cI reject the administration\u2019s anemic shipbuilding request and will seek to expand our shipbuilding plans required to meet our warfighting requirements by accelerating construction of our destroyers, frigates and auxiliary ships.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rep. Jared Golden, a Democrat from Maine, criticized the Navy for \u201ctalking about a desire to see these two yards get to a place where they can do three ships per year,\u201d but not taking firm steps to help them achieve that goal, such as committing to work so the yards can hire and train a sufficiently large workforce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Broader shipbuilding instability<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
The Navy faces a similar situation with its guided-missile frigate program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stefany said in the hearing that Wisconsin-based Fincantieri Marinette Marine invested in increasing its capacity to build the Constellation-class frigate, but the Navy plans to buy them in a sawtooth pattern of one, then two, then one, then two each year in the near term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stefany called this the \u201cminimum sustaining rate\u201d to keep Fincantieri\u2019s production line moving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Vice Adm. Scott Conn, the deputy chief of naval operations for warfighting requirements and capabilities, said at the hearing the Navy would buy more if it could afford it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThat profile is affordability, plain and simple,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe initial \u2018one\u2019 is to de-risk the program: we need that ship on time and we don\u2019t want to over-pressurize\u201d the workforce as it\u2019s learning to build the frigate and wringing out design issues, Conn said. \u201cOnce the contractor demonstrates that they are on plan, with resources available we would go to two across the board, or perhaps more in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Navy faces the same problem with its amphibious warships, where it plans to truncate the San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock program and buy America-class amphibious assault ships LHA-9 and LHA-10 more than a decade apart, despite a four- or five-year cadence being most cost-effective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Stefany confirmed during the hearing the Navy would pay more for LHA-10 due to the elongated build cycle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rep. Elaine Luria, D-Va., criticized the approach, telling Navy officials they \u201csubmitted a request that you admit is more expensive in the long run and essentially guts the workforce\u201d at Ingalls Shipbuilding, the sole provider of amphibious ships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n George Nungesser, Ingalls\u2019 vice president of program management, told reporters in a May 11 call the yard essentially views the LHA program as having a gap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cGaps \u2014 they cause concerns. You don\u2019t know how to go plan for the future or how to hire, train or retain a skilled workforce,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe\u2019ve experienced this type of gap\u201d when the Navy ended the Arleigh Burke production line in the 2000s but then later restarted it, leaving Ingalls with a five-year gap between ships. That meant essentially a new workforce constructing the DDGs, after much of the original skilled workforce moved on to other ship programs at Ingalls or other employers altogether.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe know that impacts the supply base, things of that nature, and increases pricing, and so that\u2019s why we\u2019re trying to figure out how do we move to a four-year <\/b>[gap between ships]\u201d despite what the Navy\u2019s long-range shipbuilding plan and five-year budget plan lays out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The House Armed Services Committee will take up the annual defense authorization bill next month, which will shed more light on Congress\u2019 plans for both the destroyer multi-year contract and the rest of the shipbuilding portfolio.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The U.S. Navy doesn\u2019t want to over-commit to buying too many ships in the next five years, in case it can\u2019t follow through due to fiscal or supply chain issues. That will cost the service millions of dollars.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":26212,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":16,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":{"2":{"categories":["your-military","news","left-column","home"],"primary_category":"your-military"},"7":{"categories":["your-navy","news","newsletters","daily-news-roundup","left-column","home"],"primary_category":"your-navy"}}},"categories":[8,160,16,36],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3354],"class_list":["post-51668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-congress","category-daily-news-roundup","category-naval","category-newsletters"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"E3V4KES4ORETNH2O5U7EKXECT4","arc_canonical_url":"\/naval\/2022\/05\/18\/navy-says-it-will-lose-millions-by-not-committing-to-10-destroyers-in-upcoming-contract\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/32_coverjump_ingalls.jpg.jpg\")